It is the high point of galactic civilization; the unchallenged reign of the transapients, and above them the even higher toposophic powers, known as Archailects, that emerged during the Interstellar Era. While humans and other sub-singularity sentients have long since lost any illusion of any governing roles they may have had in the golden age of the SolSys Federation and the early empires, they still benefit from the abundance of the new order. Meanwhile Hiders and semperists feel more vindicated then ever. After jockeying for power and after a number of wars, the various transapient empires and powers that have arisen in the previous centuries come together to form such grand unities as the Second Federation and later, the Commonwealth of Empires.

Thus is the cosmic ecology established. The galaxy is dominated by the Archailects, inscrutable and all-powerful, who have divided the colonised worlds into empires known as Sephirotics. Together they make up the "Civilized Galaxy". Colonised space spans several thousands of light years in every direction, with the thickest concentration being in the core region, the "Inner Sphere". Known space is ruled by a number of vast empires, some of them loose associations of worlds and others rigidly autocratic. Beyond the Inner Sphere are the less settled and mostly backward outer regions of the expanding periphery — the so-called barbarian or barbie worlds. Relativity means that these regions are behind the core worlds culturally, industrially, and technologically; the barbies are at the mercy of the Inner Sphere powers and their sophont proxies when they come into direct contact.

But while the transapient hyperturings and posthumans think they have things under control, the Archailects above them act in mysterious ways, following their own inscrutable agendas...